John 1:12-13 NIV
[12] “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— [13] children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”

John’s gospel is a book of many themes…light, darkness, new birth…

John’s introduction highlights Jesus as the Word, the Creator, and the source of light. Darkness had invaded the planet but the light came from the Father to overcome the darkness, to separate darkness from light. Those who were of darkness rejected Him and would forever be consigned to realm of darkness where the light of truth never shines and where blackness and torment forever are the consequences of rejecting the light.

However, there are those who hear, listen, believe, and receive the blessing of this new life from the one who came with the message from the Father.

This new life begins, not only with an assent to the truth but also with a spiritual rebirth so radical that it’s almost as though those who believe will go back into the womb and began life all over again.

It’s no wonder Nicodemus, the Pharisee and a religious leader of Israel, could not understand Jesus’ response to his comment…

John 3:1 NIV
[1] “Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. [2] He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”

Was his question to be, “Why are you so different from us?”

Jesus cut him short. “We belong to two different realms, Nicodemus. Your realm is “flesh”. You are spiritually dead, living in a realm where it is impossible to understand me and my realm. To know who I am, to enter my realm, you need to be born from above by a work of my Spirit.”

Nicodemus was flabbergasted. His very response shows how little he understood, how “in the flesh” he was.

John 3:4 NIV
[4] “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”

Truly, this “new birth” of which John wrote and Jesus spoke, is as radical as being born a second time into a realm as different as heaven is from earth.

How does this happen?

First, we need to hear the message.

Romans 10:17 NIV
[17] “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.”

Then, we need to believe the message.

Romans 10:9-10 NIV
[9] “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. [10] For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.”

This message is clothed in words, but not just any words…God’s Words that have power to work a miracle.

1 Peter 1:23 NIV
[23] “For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.”

Why do we need a miracle?

Ephesians 2:1-3 NIV
[1] “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, [2] in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. [3] All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.”

Dead people are dead! They can do nothing! They can hear or believe nothing!

What is the miracle God works through faith in His Word?

Ephesians 2:4-7 NIV
[4] “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, [5] made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. [6] And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, [7] in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”

Believing the message about Jesus, which is what God does for us bevauae He gives us faith, triggers the most amazing, powerful, and miraculous response from God, far more than nodding to our mental assent to what Jesus has said and done. His response is an explosion of action.

Resurrection, new life, a new beginning, a new relationship, a new status, a new direction, a new destiny, a new creation, a new hope…it’s as though we took our first breath in a brand new world.

This new birth is a mystery and a miracle. Our past, with all its sordid behaviour, is rolled up into a bundle, wrapped in the blood of Jesus, and hurled into the depth of the deepest ocean, as far away as east is from west, and forgotten forever…and it all begins with faith in a story!

However, this miracle did not begin in time. Far more wonderful is that God Himself set it all in motion before the beginning of time. He devised the plan in eternity and brought it into time when Jesus came from heaven.

Ephesians 1:3-8 NIV
[3] “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. [4] For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love [5] he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— [6] to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. [7] In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace [8] that he lavished on us….”

… And John says, “This is our right…to be children of God through faith in His Son.”

Only one thing stands between our eternal destiny in heaven or hell… receiving or rejecting Jesus as the Son of God. It’s a right, said John, as much as it is our right to breathe air as long as we live on this planet.

John 1:12 NIV
[12] Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – [13] children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”